FCN is blacklisted by PayPal

[Neosapienis]

Dear naturists:

On December 16, 2007, the FCN received a message from PayPal that they
had shut down access to our account because we violated their
acceptable usage policy. As part of their action, we cannot access the
money that we accumulated in the account for 180 days, and they
threaten to ³fine² the FCN for unexplained reasons.

After a lengthy effort trying to communicate with the people who
receive messages via a...@paypal.com, we learned that no matter what we
did to assure them that we do not deal in pornography, sell obscene
material or maintain a website for mature audiences, we were informed
that we would not get a reversal in their decision. PayPal has
demanded that we remove all references to PayPal from our website and
other places. In the meantime, anyone who goes to our website gets a
message that the FCN cannot accept payments via PayPal.

The FCN is carefully considering a public response to the arbitrary,
and hurtful, treatment to which the FCN has been subjected. After four
years of using their service, we have not had one complaint from
anyone who has subscribed to our magazine, Going Natural, bought
single copies thereof, or paid for their attendance at our annual
festival. Despite the inferred recognition that the FCN does not
violate its stated acceptable usage policy, PayPal finally stated
PayPal will not allow naturists to sell their services or goods.

It goes without saying that you will not be able to use PayPal to
continue your subscription to Going Natural. There are two other ways,
however. You can download our form on our website, www.fcn.ca. You can
fax it in if you have VISA, MasterCard or AMEX. The phone number is
416-410-6833 (NUDE). Otherwise, you can mail it to the FCN, P.O. Box
186, Station D, Toronto, Ontario M9A 4X2.

Anyone interested in reviewing Paypal's policy can view it at:
http://tinyurl.com/yr44pm

We would also caution everyone from using Paypal. During our
investigation, we've learned that when people use Paypal, they are
often waiving many rights that normally apply to other financial
institution. Paypal is NOT a bank and, as such, is not governed by the
same rules.

Here is some information from: http://www.paypalsucks.com/



1. According to PayPal accepting their ToS (Terms of Service) in
effect means you waive your rights to credit card consumer protection
laws if you want to use their service, and that you may not issue a
chargeback for unauthorized use of your credit card and PayPal
account, or if you do, then they have the right to limit your account.
Is this legal? We don't know. But it's how Paypal operates. See my
credit card waiver page for more information.

2. Their customer service is horrible. They used to hide their
telephone number, (intentionally - by their own admission) and only
provided support via "form" emails: "As for the customer service,
Sollitto said they intentionally make the phone number very difficult
to find in order to save costs."


This is confirmed in the book "PayPal Wars". If you have a problem,
you are at their mercy! (And you will eventually have a problem.) The
only reason their number can be found now is because they were forced
to by law (EFTA Electronic Funds Transaction Act) due to complaints
from users of this website. You can also click on our FAQs page. Just
scroll down a bit, and you'll find their phone numbers, plus their
toll free numbers as well, plus a huge list of unpublished PayPal
phone numbers.

3. Their terms of service are not completely disclosed upon signup and
some key "conditions" are not disclosed. They fail to mention their
total lack of security to prevent your account from being compromised
by phishing & spoof sites. That if your account is accessed by a
criminal using one of these methods, PayPal will hold YOU monetarily &
legally responsible! Also, no place do they openly tell potential
members that their money is 100% at risk. That PayPal can, will, and
has in the past, completely cleaned out customers' accounts,
(including your checking or savings account) with no appeals process
available. Instead they bury in the fine print of 37 pages of their
"Terms of Service" (ToS) where they disclose to you that PayPal can
close your account for any reason what-so-ever, or no reason, and then
you have to wait 180 days to get your money. Think that'll never
happen? Think again. That's what everyone thinks till it happens to
them.

4. If PayPal feels your actions are questionable, PayPal is the
investigator, judge, jury and executioner. "Telling your side" of what
happened, in most cases seems to be irrelevant. They also refuse to
provide you with the details of their investigation and withhold
documents they relied upon to make their decisions. Your only contact
will be an email that says:

Thank you for contacting PayPal. We apologize for the delay in
respondingto your service request.

After review, the decision has been made to keep your account locked.
This decision cannot be appealed.

If you have any further questions, please reply to this email.

That will be the end of it as far as PayPal is concerned. You can
email back, but you'll just get more of the same. Oh yea, and you'll
have to wait 180 days to get your money.

5. If you are a bona fide, up-standing individual with hundreds of
successful transactions, but someone pays you with a stolen credit
card, your account (by PayPal's own admission) is immediately flagged
as being "criminal behavior" and any money in that account is
confiscated. If a customer "disputes" the charge, same thing happens.
(See email above.) PayPal claims that they will fight chargebacks, but
read this before you fall for that one.

6. Paypal's fees for NON-credit card funding are the same as for
credit cards! This is the single biggest rippoff on their site. We
understand Paypal charging a fee when you fund your account with a
credit card. After all, they are being charged by Visa/Mastercard,
etc. And we understand there is a lot of fraud with credit card
funding. However, most of the money sent within the Paypal system no
longer comes from credit card funding. However, money spent from
PayPal account to PayPal account is subject to the exact same fees
credit card purchases are! This money has been in the system for years
and is "clean." That is, there are no fees at all to Paypal, and there
is almost no fraud at all with this money, but Paypal charges the SAME
fees to transactions with NON-credit card funds! Thus every
transaction makes PayPal money, but it's nothing more than an entry in
a computer database on their system. No money has actually moved, and
there are no costs to Paypal. They are just skimming the gravy.


Other sites of interest:

http://www.screw-paypal.com/

http://www.paypalsucks.org/

http://www.nopaypal.com/